News & Resources

Preventing Energy Customer Overcharges

One of Quarles & Brady's large, commercial industrial clients was faced with a massive rate increase from its local utility, amounting to tens of millions of dollars annually. As with most rate cases, public utilities provide evidence of the need to raise rates through studies that show usage and the costs of generating power to meet it. Our team was able to dig into the utility’s rate study, more fully comprehend its data collection methodology than many other legal teams might, and determine that the utility had assigned to the client the costs of maintaining energy-producing facilities that did not serve the client. Once that fact had been uncovered, the utility’s argument for raising the client’s rates broke down, and the increase was eventually withdrawn.